Shoppers in Peterborough flock to cash machine as it pays out double

Joel Lamy

Thursday, 10.40am: Customers love a good deal when buying their groceries, but some shoppers got more than they bargained for last night.

Visitors to Morrisons in Stanground were left feeling richer than when they came in after discovering that a faulty cash machine was dispensing double the amount of money it was meant to.

Word quickly spread and within minutes the cash point was said to have been surrounded with shoppers desperate to take advantage of the glitch.

Two men reportedly went home and brought back all their cards to get their full money’s worth, while one customer admitted to receiving £80 when only asking for £40.

The customer, who discovered the mistake at 6.45pm last night (Wednesday February 11) added that by 7pm there was a queue of 10 people at the machine and that 15 minutes after that it was being mobbed.

A spokeswoman for Morrisons confirmed the glitch.

She said: “We were quickly notified that a fault had occurred with the Cardtronics cash machine outside of our store. Our colleagues attended, switched the faulty ATM off and notified the bank. The Cardtronics bank is coming to repair the machine today.”

It has not been possible to contact the owners of the cash machine so far.

A spokesperson from Cardtronics UK said: “We are aware of the recent service error at this ATM and we are looking into it.”

When asked how much money had been lost, whether it will be recovered, or why the glitch occurred, the spokesperson added: “It is company policy not to issue information or comment on individual cases like this.”